The fans witnessed a fight closer than the score cards revealed as Oleksandr Usyk was pushed to his limits before a controversial stoppage win over Rico Verhoeven. Verhoeven looked like he had the possibility of creating one of the biggest upsets in boxing history when he was bringing the fight to Oleksandr Usyk. In the 10th round Verhoeven was still hanging tough showing that he not only belonged in the Ring with the unified Champion, but that he was showing up to win, not just collect a paycheck.
Verhoeven took the fight to Usyk and the crowd seemed to sense there was an upset in the making as Rico Verhoeven continued to agressively attack Usyk with punishing shots. That same agression which had made it such a fight ended up costing him the fight when he rushed forward and Usyk landed a power uppercut wobbling the Glory Kickboxing champion.
Verhoeven momentarily dropped to the canvas beating any count with just seconds left n the round. Usyk sensing his opportunity unloaded on a series of punches while Rico Verhoeven tried to tie up and regain composure until the ref stepped in and stoped the fight. Fans and the coaches of Verhoeven protested the stoppage that officially came with only 1 second left in the 11th round.
Immediately after the fight there has not been any official announcement of a rematch, but it would appear that Turki Alalshikh would like to make those plans. Boxing has had a series of top level fighters cross over from other martial arts with good success. Francis Ngannou lost a split decision to Tyson Fury while Rico Verhoeven put forth an amazing fight against Oleksandor Usyk. Do you think these men fights would be as entertaining in Women’s Boxing? Cris Cyborg has a $2,000,000 offer extended to Claressa Shields for a Boxing superfight between the 18x MMA World Champion and Claressa Shields. Do you think Cyborg’s power and aggressiveness would be enough to beat Claressa Shields?
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